China says its economy grew 2.3% in 2020, but consumer spending fell

BEIJING — China reported GDP rose 2.3% final yr because the world struggled to comprise the coronavirus pandemic.

Gross home product grew by 6.5% in the fourth quarter from a yr in the past, official information from National Bureau of Statistics confirmed.

However, Chinese customers remained reluctant to spend, as retail gross sales contracted 3.9% for the yr. Retail gross sales for the fourth quarter rose 4.6% from a yr in the past.

Online gross sales of consumer items rose at a comparatively fast tempo of 14.8% final yr, the statistics bureau mentioned, but the proportion of total retail gross sales held pretty regular at round one-fourth.

Economists anticipated China to have been the one main economy to develop final yr, and predicted GDP expanded by simply over 2%.

Covid-19 first emerged in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan in late 2019. In an effort to manage the virus, Chinese authorities shut down greater than half the nation, and the economy contracted by 6.8% in the primary three months of 2020.

However, China returned to development by the second quarter. Economists polled by Reuters predicted GDP would enhance 6.1% in the fourth quarter, sooner than the 4.9% tempo of the prior quarter.

China’s GDP development determine this yr will come off a lowered base.

In late December, the National Bureau of Statistics lowered China’s official development price for 2019 to six.0%, versus the beforehand reported 6.1%. The lower primarily occurred in manufacturing, as factories handled new U.S. tariffs on billions of {dollars}’ value of Chinese items.

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